Stay at POP Century was Great!!

[arizonacolbys]

Just wanted to post a quick note to let everyone know that we really enjoyed our 2nd stay at POP Century. We were there 1/21 - 1/31/05. When we checked in - around noon on the 21st - there was noone in line ahead of us! We got checked in by a great new CM (earning her ears) - we requested a room similar to our room that we stayed in last Sept & she got us the room right next to it & on the corner by the lake! The room was great & the resort was perfect.

Our room was spotless - we had a great mousekeeper that left us a couple different towel animals/designs throughout our trip. Our room was in the 50's Tramp building, 4th floor, right by the lake. It's nice & quiet on this end - away from the pools. I found the best way to quiet down the noises sometimes heard of toilets flushing was to just keep our bathroom door shut while sleeping. It seemed to drown out any noise pretty well. The last couple nights we had an inconsiderate neighbor that insisted on going out on the balcony at all hours of the night for a smoke - the door always had to slam shut on the lock - still don't understand why some people do this.

Food court was great - had a couple of breakfasts there, a couple dinners & quite a few snacks throughout various days. Loved the refillable mugs. Unfortunately, we never ventured into the pools - too cold except our last day, which we didn't want to spend swimming.

We loved the POP & may even return for a 3rd trip on our AP's this September. Not sure we'll be returning in January any time soon - used to be a lot less crowded IMO. We're used to trading the weather for low crowds - but it really seemed much more crowded than our previous Jan trip & our 2 Sept trips. We didn't enjoy the increased crowds combined with the cooler weather.

I'll be doing restaurant reviews (hopefully over the weekend.) Let me know if anyone has any questions - thanks for listening!

 

[spiceycat]

I have a reservation for AKL but you make me miss Pop century....

 

[justlikeeyore]

I was there the same time you were POP is gr8 place to stay. Weather was alittle chilly through

 

[Chip 'n Dale Express]

When I stayed at Pop during Hurricane Jeanne, we had a neighbor do the door lock slam too. When I went outsite to talk to him about it, he honestly didn't realize it made that much noise. Once he knew, we never heard a peep.

 

[Disney Fool]

Hey, I was there same time Jan 28-30 Did I see you drooling over the tie-dye cheesecake?

 

[Magalex]

Thanks for the positive review of POP. We will be there in April for my DS's first trip to WDW. I am glad to hear good things about the food court and mousekeeping!

Magalex

 

[areno79]

Me too, thanks for the good review of Pop, we're staying at our first Value in May. Previously we've stayed in one of the DD hotels, so it's good to know others have had a good experience there

 

[NBFUN]

Were taking our DS there in April and are really excited. Thanks so much for the great review.

 

[DisneyAddict_M]

I stayed at POP in November and I loved it.

 

[indymom1]

We are looking to book POP for this coming July/August and would like to know one thing. I have heard people refer that they can see the Illuminations fireworks from this resort. Is this true?? Is so where in the resort do you need to go to be able to see them. We will be there with out two sons ages 3 and 8 and I think that they would really like it if they could see them.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Disney Fool]

I wouldn't be surprised if it is true. Pop Century is not far from the Caribbean Beach Resort --in fact, it's on the next block around the corner. Caribbean Beach is an Epcot resort, so I'd assume that you could see fireworks from one of the buildings at Pop, although I don't know where, and I'd assume you'd have to be on the 4th floor to see them. Maybe somebody else knows.

 

[Goofy41]

Wonderful review. We will be going the end of June and staying at Pop Century. I rebooked my reservation and made a few changes. I went from 6 nites ,5-days base tix, and dinning, for Me, DW and DS came to $1921.83 w/o any discounts. I have AAA so today I called in to check and had change it to the "room only" to get my AAA discount. I can't get the AAA discount with anything included. I will but the tix seperately before going to still save a little, but we lose out on the dinning all together. I know the price is right, but to charge 35 for a 10yr old is a bit much, so that why we changes it. If anyoneout there has any other ways of saving please feel free to let me know.

 

[DisneyAddict_M]

We are looking to book POP for this coming July/August and would like to know one thing. I have heard people refer that they can see the Illuminations fireworks from this resort. Is this true?? Is so where in the resort do you need to go to be able to see them. We will be there with out two sons ages 3 and 8 and I think that they would really like it if they could see them.

Thanks in advance.

We were in the 60's Playdoh building and we were able to see the fireworks from around the corner of our room (our room # was 4228). Don't know if that helps.

 

[gigi1313]

Wonderful review. We will be going the end of June and staying at Pop Century. I rebooked my reservation and made a few changes. I went from 6 nites ,5-days base tix, and dinning, for Me, DW and DS came to $1921.83 w/o any discounts. I have AAA so today I called in to check and had change it to the "room only" to get my AAA discount. I can't get the AAA discount with anything included. I will but the tix seperately before going to still save a little, but we lose out on the dinning all together. I know the price is right, but to charge 35 for a 10yr old is a bit much, so that why we changes it. If anyoneout there has any other ways of saving please feel free to let me know.

try calling AAA directly and ask them to book your package... there's a good chance they can save you money!

 

[momto2inKC]

Wonderful review. We will be going the end of June and staying at Pop Century. I rebooked my reservation and made a few changes. I went from 6 nites ,5-days base tix, and dinning, for Me, DW and DS came to $1921.83 w/o any discounts. I have AAA so today I called in to check and had change it to the "room only" to get my AAA discount. I can't get the AAA discount with anything included. I will but the tix seperately before going to still save a little, but we lose out on the dinning all together. I know the price is right, but to charge 35 for a 10yr old is a bit much, so that why we changes it. If anyoneout there has any other ways of saving please feel free to let me know.

You should call and talk with your AAA agent. I just booked ours and we're staying 6 days, 5 nights at Pop (May 15-20), 5 day park hoppers, and the dining plan for 2 adults, 6 yr old and 8 yr old and with trip insurance we paid $1850. Which saved us over $100 from the quote we got from Disney.

 

[Gagebre]

Thanks for posting your review. I was so close to changing my March res to AKL but I think I'm gonna stop reading (right!) and stay put. We stayed one night there in September and the door banging thing really annoyed me, but I'm just gonna stay positive and hope I don't have to deal with it. I actually think it was the Mousekeepers in the morning that did the door thing constantly!! Couldn't they just put a towel or something in the door while they're going in and out?!

 

[areno79]

I'm in the same boat, Goofy41. I just can't justify $35 for an 11 year old who eats like a bird...plus I wish there were more restaurants in Epcot that were included in the plan
I actually am booking directly with Disney and applying my AAA discount, I've heard it's easier to do it that way in case a code comes up

 

[popeyeohoh]

Glad you had a great time. I enjoy reading specifics about room locations. I'm surprised by the crowds. I wonder if the attendance history is changing?

 

[arizonacolbys]

Indymom1 - we have been able to see the fireworks from Illuminations (& some from Wishes - but not always a great view) from the 4th floor of the 50's section out near the lake. It's not a perfect view - but, I always enjoyed watching them from the balcony while calling back home, or enjoying a hot chocolate.

Gagebre - I, too, think the AKL would be really cool to check out, but I'm not sure we'll get there anytime soon. We love the POP too much. For the price of the room, we can stay twice as long as at a deluxe. We love the food court & think that the transportation is among the best at this resort. I think you'll really enjoy staying at POP. (I also think that the door banging could happen anywhere - we've also heard this noise at other resorts, even deluxes. It also happens at non-Disney resorts across the country. I think it's just luck of the draw. If the noise was at the beginning of our trip I probably would've said something - just didn't want to be confrontational & figured we only had 2 days left at that point anyways.)

 

[arizonacolbys]

Popeyeohoh - We were really wondering about the crowds ourselves. We really looked forward to our Jan trip expecting no crowds. We wondered if more northeners were there to escape the nasty blizzard that hit while we were there. There also seemed to be quite a few tour groups (I think some were from Brazil, maybe? They all wore flourescent yellow outfits. )

We got everything done that we wanted to, but skipped many things a second time around because the waits were so long. I'm sure it was much better than peak times, just not what we were used to. We may switch to September being our favorite time to visit.